Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/55

Rh own occupation, termed in the phraseology of the day Nij-jot and Kkás Khámár; and he was not in the habit, in respect of such plots, of showing the tenantry how the yield of the land could be increased by manure, or how on the various levels the cereals, the date-tree, the jute, the tobacco-plant or the sugar-cane, could be sown and grown with profit. Practically in these cases his own servants or hired labourers cultivated the Khás lands and produced very indifferent results. The main object of the Zamíndárs, for years after 1793, was to induct Ryots into waste and culturable lands, as population increased and as more space and new villages were required to meet the wants of a growing community.

It was one of the cardinal points of the new Settlement that Government on the one hand would not impose any additional taxation on any lands within the supposed area of any estate which had been cleared and cultivated, or on account of any luxuriant harvest in any one year. On the other hand, the Zamíndár was not to expect remissions or suspensions of the revenue when his lands suffered from drought, inundation, or other calamity of the season. He was bound to take the lean and the fat years together and to make the best of both. If he failed in the punctual discharge of his obligations to the State, no excuse could be accepted. His estate, or a portion sufficient to make good the arrears due, would be put up to auction peremptorily and sold to